


"after you."

by clickingkeyboards



Series: one hundred ways to say 'i love you' [35]
Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Arguments, Breaking Up & Making Up, F/F, Fallouts, Fights, Hurt/Comfort, not really breaking up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21718027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: Hazel and Daisy fight.Modern AUWritten for the thirty-fifth prompt in the '100 ways to say "I love you"' prompt list by p0ck3tf0x on Tumblr.
Relationships: Daisy Wells/Hazel Wong
Series: one hundred ways to say 'i love you' [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533164
Kudos: 12





	"after you."

The tension is almost palpable, so obvious that even Beanie could notice.

Daisy and I fought last night, worse than we ever have before.

“WHY ARE YOU SO INSISTENT ON RUINING MY LIFE?” I scream at her. “IF I TELL MY FATHER, HE WILL KICK ME OUT.”

“WHY ARE YOU SO ASHAMED OF BEING WITH ME?” she screams back at me, and tears were streaming down both of our faces. Her face is stained red with fury, an unrestrained sort I have never seen before. Blonde hair is soaked with sweat and worked frizzy from stress, half-fallen from its plaits. I am no better, in tears and red in the face, hands shaking and my voice choking out sore with sobs.

“THE ONLY ONE ASHAMED OF YOU IS YOU!” I shriek back, and then I rip open the door and storm out into the dreary rain of England, and stalk to the Underground station before realising that I don’t have my Oyster card. This leads to me miserably phoning my dear friend Alexander and choking out the station I am in.

“I know,” he replies to me. “George is currently on the phone with your crying girlfriend.”

“Why is  _ she _ crying? It’s all her fault,” I say, trying to be as furious as I possibly can as I know that is how you were supposed to feel after a fight.

“Don’t talk like that. Hazel, your heart isn’t in it,” he tells me, and I hear the jangling of keys.

With what I’m sure is accompanied by a gesture at George to cover the receiver, I hear him say in low tones, “I’m going to get Hazel.”

George replies in tones just as quiet, “Okay, love you. Stay safe,” before going back to talking to my girlfriend.

* * *

Once I reach Alexander and George’s flat, wrapped in Alexander’s coat and shivering miserably, George takes one look at my miserable face and says, “Tea?”

I let a smile tug at my face, dampened and grimy from rain and tears. “You’re so English, George.”

“You are the only person who has said that to me in the last twenty-three years,” he tells me, walking over to squeeze my shoulder and wipe the grime from my cheeks. “Oh, Hazel, dear. I’ll go and get you a drink. Al, get her something warm to wear.”

Standing in their lobby with my arms wrapped around me, shivering and crying, I have never felt more alone. I have just fought with Daisy.  _ Daisy _ , my best friend of over ten years, my girlfriend of six years, all gone and exploded in one argument because we are both as stubborn as each other.

All because I do not want to come out to my dear father. He will reject me but what is that in the face of Daisy Wells, really? She has been rejected by her family and all she has left is her brother and her uncle, everybody else publicly shaming her on the news before telling her that she will never be welcomed into their household again.

I know that if I was ever given the choice between my father and Daisy, I would choose Daisy time and time and time again. All it is that I do not want to  _ have _ to make that choice.

“Hazel, my dear?” George says, and I blink tears from my eyes to see him standing in front of me with a cup and a biscuit. “Come on, sit down.”

I sniff. “I’m cold.”

“I know you are, Hazel. Alexander has put some clothes in the dryer for you to warm you up.” With a hand on my forearm, he leads me into their sitting room and sits me down on their leather sofa. “I spoke with Daisy.”

“I know.”

“The point is, Hazel, that you will never have to break up with Daisy ver this. Just breathe and let out that worry from your mind because that is not going to happen.”

“It won’t?” I feel my shoulders deflate and the tension bleeds from my body. “I thought that arguments are supposed to lead to a breakup?”

Taking a seat beside me, George puts an arm around my shoulders and I lean against him. He’s wearing a dark red sweater with a white collared shirt underneath, both of which my hair is soaking through. “Alex and I fight, don’t we, Hazel?”

“I suppose.”

“Hazel, how your family works are not how they all work.”

Everything is muddled and confused, the fight made me so attentive that the warmth and low-light comfort of their flat piercingly painful to my eyes. Alexander returns to the room with a pair of sweatpants that are definitely his and a swarthy cashmere jumper that is definitely George’s. “Here, Hazel!” he says with his classic enormous smile. “I hope you’re alright.”

With a small nod, I get to my feet and bury myself in his arms, my nose pressed into the shoulder of his t-shirt. “Oh… hey, Hazel! It’s going to be alright, I promise you. It’s… it’s only a fight, Hazel!”

I sniff. “I know.”

* * *

At the crime scene the following day, George, Alexander and I meet a dishevelled Daisy at the door.

“Oh— I…” I gesture. “You first.”

“After you,” she says.

It’s an odd gesture, one that truly makes my heart lurch. Not once have I ever walked ahead of Daisy Wells at a crime scene. Is this how she shows her submission?

With raised eyebrows, George says, “Gentlemen first,” and strides through the door of the church, throwing up his middle finger to the cross over the door on his way in. 

With a curt nod, Daisy tries to get me to go in first. I don’t. Instead, I turn and face her.

“I’m sorry,” she blurts, tugging her blazer tighter around her. “I really am, Hazel. I know it was cruel of me, saying that you’re ashamed of me because you won’t come out to your father. Of all the people in your life, I should understand and, well, I didn’t. I’m sorry, Hazel. You don’t have to accept but…”

I fling myself at her. “Oh, Daisy! I forgive you, I love you, I’m sorry too. I know that you’re not ashamed of yourself.”

She wraps her arms tightly around me and her chin digs into the top of my head. “Let us never fight again. Ever.”

We lean apart, then in again to kiss. “Never.”

After a long pause, I tell her, “I won’t come out to my father.”

“I know.” Daisy is  _ agreeing _ ? What has the world come to? “I understand. I called Bertie last night and he is planning to come out himself.”

I freeze. “What?” I ask, my voice not sounding quite my own.

“Watson, are you blind?” she says with a laugh. “My brother is not straight.”

It’s my turn to shock her. “I’ll come out to my sisters instead. Or Ah Lan.”

She kisses me again. “Thank you.”  _ I’m sorry. _

“You’re welcome.”  _ I know. _


End file.
